An aggressive campaign war is waiting to be unleashed in the social media space with the Chhattisgarh unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) setting up a dedicated content team for wooing youth voters during the forthcoming Assembly polls.
“The content team involved with campaign activity had been offered the task of consistently gathering and customising party related content for posting them on party’s district-wise Facebook accounts already operational now for more than two-and-a-half years,” BJP’s Head of the IT Cell in Chhattisgarh Deepak Mhaskey told The Pioneer.
He said that a total of 90 Vidhan Sabha (Assembly segment) Facebook accounts will be opened for the use of the Chhattisgarh unit of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) — the youth wing of the BJP for campaigning during the Assembly polls.
The BJYM Social Media poll campaign would be managed by 25 to 26 dedicated IT cells from across Chhattisgarh, Mhaskey said. He said that the party had been getting fairly good response from the visitors on Facebook accounts from districts in the urban pockets of Chhattisgarh while the same it slightly slower in the rural areas.
The content posted on district-level Facebook accounts has information specific to the activity of the district unit of the party in their respective regions which is posted on a continuous basis, Mhaskey said. The party now has a Facebook account for almost all the districts in Chhattisgarh and content is posted by the respective IT cells on a continuous basis on the party’s activities in their respective regions, he stated.
A study by Internet and Mobile Association of India and IRIS Knowledge Foundation in April this year has concluded that social media such as Facebook and Twitter are likely to influence at least 160 lok Sabha constituencies out of 543 in the next general elections. The study led to a major debate in the political circles regarding the efficacy of the cyber campaigns during polls.